


Gardens of Our Lives

by SailorSol



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bral Feels, Gen, lots of metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29570529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorSol/pseuds/SailorSol
Summary: Hound digs his fingers into the soft, slightly damp earth, tugging gently from the roots of the weed, making sure all of it comes out. He sets it aside in the steadily growing pile and shifts to the next one. The work doesn’t take much thought nor much skill; sufficient is enough for the plants he’s helping to cultivate.When they first came to Concord Dawn, Thorn had taken the lead in starting a new Guard. Commander Fox had gone back to Coruscant with Blockade and several others; some of the vode from the Coruscant Guard had gone off to try different things too. Hound wasn’t good for much else, so he had stayed with the rest of Bral.
Relationships: Faie & Hound
Comments: 7
Kudos: 42
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	Gardens of Our Lives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TessaDoesThings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaDoesThings/gifts).



Hound digs his fingers into the soft, slightly damp earth, tugging gently from the roots of the weed, making sure all of it comes out. He sets it aside in the steadily growing pile and shifts to the next one. The work doesn’t take much thought nor much skill;  _ sufficient _ is enough for the plants he’s helping to cultivate. 

When they first came to Concord Dawn, Thorn had taken the lead in starting a new Guard. Commander Fox had gone back to Coruscant with Blockade and several others; some of the vode from the Coruscant Guard had gone off to try different things too. Hound wasn’t good for much else, so he had stayed with the rest of Bral.

It was Stone who had suggested they live together; Thorn was the one who wanted to stay close to the light rail, while Thire had suggested moving further from the city center. But it had been Faie who had insisted on having a yard. Big enough for Grizzer, he’d said, while pointedly not looking towards Hound.

Grizzer did like the yard. He liked to dig in the dirt and chase the smaller critters that dared enter his space. He especially liked to roll around in the grass and bask in the warm sunlight while Hound tended the gardens. There were parks on Coruscant, but none of them had ever been like this, removed enough from everyone else that it was  _ quiet _ except for the birds and the insects and the soft music wafting from inside the house.

The gardens had started as something new and different for them all to try. There were a handful of edible plants, but most of them were decorative. Pretty for the sake of being pretty. Stone had quickly decided that gardening wasn’t for him; too hot and dirty and tedious, and reminding him far too much of some of Commander Fox’s more creative punishments. Thire had a handful of herbs with medicinal properties that he tended to himself, and Thorn could usually be counted on to look after the vegetables.

But Hound liked the feel of the dirt in his hands, the smell of it after it rained, and the way he could see the plants thrive and flourish under his care. They never made him feel boorish or inadequate, never minded that he preferred silence to the constant chattering that some vode liked. He likes the way it creates neat, orderly lines of flowers, though it took him a little while to understand why certain plants were considered weeds and others weren’t. The sense of order is reassuring, especially here on Concord Dawn where things are so different from how they’ve lived the rest of their lives.

He tugs out the last of the weeds in this section and gathers up the pile to bring to the compost pile he had started on a suggestion from the Holonet. Faie is idly playing fetch with Grizzer, and if Hound didn’t know better, he would almost think the commander had been waiting for him. They don’t talk much, but they’ve been learning to inhabit the same spaces. Lately it almost hasn’t even felt like it had to be a choice between the two of them. 

“What is this? What are we really?”

Hound considers Faie's question, taking the shovel to mix the weeds into the pile of food scraps and yard clippings. Faie waits, ignoring Grizzer’s increased irritation at being ignored. Hound finishes with the compost and turns to face the other man.

He thinks about weeds and flowers, how some of them look so much alike but are treated so differently.  _ Invasive _ was the term the Holonet had used, for why weeds needed to be removed. They weren’t meant to be there, and if left unchecked, they would steal away everything the other plants needed to survive. Replace them, the way Hound had replaced Faie.

Sometimes, though, Thire takes some of Hound’s discarded weeds and puts them into pots and tends them as carefully as the rest of his medicine plants. When Hound had asked, Thire had pointed out ways the weeds could be useful when cared for properly. That in some places, they weren’t considered invasive, and it was the plants that Hound knew as flowers that were considered to be the weeds that needed to be removed. 

It had been a frustrating answer, but looking at Faie’s expectant expression, considering how they had both been yanked like weeds and forced into new places they didn’t quite belong, Hound thinks he might understand better. He glances towards the one corner of the yard that he’s let grow free, weeds and flowers mixing as they wished, and thinks that of any of their brothers, Faie will understand the best.

“Plants. Just plants.”


End file.
